Mike Nagy with Shane Jolley in Guelph
Shane Jolley is the Green who has won more votes than any other Green in Canada. Shane won more than 15,000 votes in the October 2007 provincial election for a 33% second place finish in Bruce Grey Owen Sound(BGOS).
Shane was canvassing all weekend here in Guelph along with Randy Dryburgh, CEO of the BGOS Green Party.
Shane’s coming back to Guelph for the entire last week in the run up to the September 8 E-day. And he’ll be bringing other key members of his BGOS campaign team. Shane may even bring his daughters to campaign!
This campaign is the best practical campaign university you’ll ever experience. The lessons for campaign managers, canvass coordinators, sign captains are invaluable.
A steady stream of leaders have been coming to Guelph to campaign. Here are some of the candidates: Cathy Mott (Oxford); Gary Brown (London West); Cathy MacLellan, (Kitchener-Waterloo), Pauline Richards (Kitchener-Waterloo, 2004 & 2006); Ed Moore (London, 2004); Nick Capra (York West in Toronto); Jason Becevello (Scarborough East); Chris Tindal (Toronto-Centre); Grace Yogaretnam (Mississauga-Brampton South, 2006); Ard Van Leeuwen (Dufferin Caledon); Jim Harris (Beaches East York, 2006) and Stephen Brotherston (Hamilton) – just to mention a few. And they’ve been bringing with them key people from their campaign teams.
Lawson Hunter, President of the Green Party of Ontario has been campaigning in Guelph.
What’s important to note from Shane’s fantastic result in October 2007 is that he significantly improved on Elizabeth May’s by-election result of November 2006 in London North Centre (LNC). Elizabeth won almost 10,000 votes in a fully funded ($88,000) campaign that had 10,000 hours of volunteer time invested in it.
In Shane’s case he wasn’t the leader or deputy leader of the party (at the time), his campaign had less than half the financial resources, and it didn’t even have a third of the volunteer hours that were invested in LNC. But the Green Party’s support has continued to rise – and Shane’s stunning campaign ended up with 50% more votes than LNC!
In this Guelph by-election we will have the highest spending campaign ever ($91,000); we will have the highest number of volunteer hours invested ever, and we have the most Green Party star power ever in a riding campaigning for Mike.
And in this by-election strategic voting disappears – because the government will not change, the old line parties can’t spend $18 million on national advertising campaigns.
Because of his stunning success, Shane was elected Deputy Leader of the Green Party of Ontario in June 2008.
Judy Smith Torrie, also elected Deputy Leader of the Green Party of Ontario in June 2008 is coming to campaign in Guelph for a week!
Elizabeth May is visiting the riding for her second time in just a month – and returning again during the campaign.
Come join the Green leaders from all across Canada who are working to win our first seat in Guelph. . .
To get involved:
1) Call the campaign office at (519) 820-6899
2) Email Martin Lavictoire (Out of Town Volunteer Coordinator) mlavicto@yahoo.ca
or
3) Simply show up to the campaign office at 73 Gordon Street, Guelph http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=73+Gordon+Street,+Guelph...